News

EU pig prices: German discounted prices are stirring the market

16 October 2018

Last week (9 October) the European pigs-mature-for-slaughter market presented itself inconsistently: while the pigs-for-slaughter quotations appeared steady in some EU member countries, they went down in others

Steady quotations were reported from Denmark, Belgium, Austria, and Germany. The Belgian quotation picked up courage again after the African swine fever outbreak and the subsequent price correction for calendar week 39. For the second time in a row, the Belgian quotation was able to maintain achieved a corrected 1.16 € per kg.

The German market was disappointed with the market development despite unchanged quotations. This is because of the current quotation level not being accepted by the processing industry, thus creating price pressure. After the major slaughter companies took the first step, various medium-size companies also paid no more than just discounted prices. The payment prices deviated from the quotation by as many as 2 to 4 cents. Reducing the pressure has been made harder to achieve through Germany’s national holiday on 3 October and the day of slaughter missing because of it.

Slightly weaker quotations were observed in Spain and in the Netherlands. The price decrease typical for this time of the year in Spain was primarily caused by the seasonal increase in the quantities on offer as well as by the end of the holiday season.

If looked at as a whole, the European meat market may be regarded as the greatest concern, say market participants from the various EU member countries. Bad margins resulting from insufficient sales prices are having a negative impact on the atmosphere. On top, favourable offers from Belgium are making the prices a harder issue to negotiate.

(Source: ISN - Interessengemeinschaft der Schweinehalter Deutschlands)1) corrected quotation: The official Quotations of the different countries are corrected, so that each quotation has the same base (conditions).2) These quotations are based on the correction formulas applied since 01.08.2010.base: 57 % lean-meat-percentage; farm-gate-price; 79 % killing-out-percentage, without value-added-tax

Trend for the German market

Last week’s situation of discounted prices adversely affected the local pigs-mature-for-slaughter market. For seasonal reasons, the quantities of live animals on offer continue to be large with last week’s missing day of slaughter continuing to have an effect on the market. Hence, the price development remains an uncertain matter.

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